Chancellor Emerita Patricia A. Sullivan Dead at Age 69

 

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Posted 8-20-09

GREENSBORO — Dr. Patricia A. Sullivan, the former chancellor who led UNCG as it grew into a major research university, died today at Beacon Place hospice in Greensboro after a two-year battle with pancreatic cancer. She was 69.

Sullivan became UNCG’s ninth chancellor Jan. 1, 1995, and was the first woman to hold that post. She guided the university as it dramatically expanded enrollment, research, campus facilities and academic programs. When she retired at the end of July 2008, she was the UNC system’s longest tenured chancellor.

“The UNCG campus community is grieving today upon news of the loss of its friend and former leader, Pat Sullivan. Chancellor Sullivan transformed this campus,” said Chancellor Linda P. Brady, who succeeded Sullivan.

“Her leadership and dedication, and her fighting spirit, have made an indelible mark on the life of this university. I feel the loss personally because Pat has been a source of advice and counsel during my first year as chancellor. She was a good friend to me as a newcomer to Greensboro. We shall miss her.”

UNC President Erskine B. Bowles said, “Pat Sullivan was without question one of the finest people I have ever known, and it was a rare privilege to work alongside and learn from her. Pat loved UNC Greensboro to her very core. She left an indelible mark on the campus and she treated each of its students as her very own.

“When she retired last year, she was the most senior chancellor within our University, and she was respected and admired by colleagues all across our state and nation. As chancellor of UNCG and as a private citizen, she offered living proof that real success comes from doing what’s right and what’s in the public interest. I don’t think you could leave a finer legacy.”

She is survived by her husband, Dr. Charles W. Sullivan of Greensboro. The family will receive friends from 5-7 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 23, at Hanes Lineberry North Elm Chapel in Greensboro. A funeral mass will be conducted at 10 a.m. Monday, Aug. 24, at St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church on Horse Pen Creek Road, Greensboro.

The UNCG Alumni House will be open 8 a.m.-6 p.m. Friday as a gathering place for the community to write condolences to Charles and the Sullivan family.

Per her wishes, in lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Patricia A. Sullivan and Charles W. Sullivan Scholarship Fund, which the couple established at UNCG.

“Pat Sullivan was one of the most accomplished leaders that I have encountered in my career,” said Stephen C. Hassenfelt, UNCG Board of Trustees chairman. “She was a gracious and wonderful person who was admired and appreciated by everyone who knew her. I am proud to have been her friend and am certainly a better person for having known and worked with Pat. She was truly a gift to UNCG and the Greensboro community.”

Sullivan’s attention to detail and interest in every facet of the university were legendary. Rarely seen without one of her trademark scarves, she started almost every day by writing notes of appreciation to students, faculty and friends of the university. Her staff once tallied 1,336 handwritten notes in the course of a year.

Under her leadership, the university was transformed.
• Enrollment grew 36 percent from 12,644 in fall 1995 to 17,407 in 2008.
• The university awarded 33,000 undergraduate and graduate degrees, including 856 doctorates, during Sullivan’s tenure, accounting for almost a third of the degrees awarded since the institution opened in 1892.
• Research grants and contracts increased more than 180 percent from $12.7 million in 1994-95 to $36 million in 2006-07.
• The university added nine doctoral programs – nursing, geography, economics, information systems, special education, community health, communication sciences and disorders, history and medicinal biochemistry – eight master’s programs and 20 graduate certificate programs.
• UNCG established more than 15 interdisciplinary research centers and formed research and economic development partnerships with other institutions, including the Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering, Gateway University Research Park, and the Guilford Genomic Medicine Initiative.
• Campus facilities were transformed through roughly $500 million in new construction and renovation. The university built four major academic buildings and renovated many more.
• Endowment holdings almost tripled from $62 million in 1995 to $183 million in 2007.
• The Students First Campaign became the most successful fundraising initiative in UNCG history and has exceeded its $100 million goal. The earlier Second Century Campaign was under way when Sullivan arrived and raised $55.4 million before ending in 1998.
• The Carnegie Foundation in 2006 designated UNCG a Research University with High Research Activity, a category that includes other top-tier universities such as Wake Forest, Clemson and Boston College.

Her service extended well beyond the borders of the campus. She served on the board of the United Way of Greater Greensboro and was chair of the city campaign in 2002. She also served on the boards of the North Carolina Citizens for Business and Industry, the Greensboro Area Chamber of Commerce, the Center for Creative Leadership and the Advisory Council of Greater Greensboro Cities in Schools.

Nationally, she was involved with the American Council on Education, chairing its Commission on Women in Higher Education. Her service to the American Association of State Colleges and Universities includes chairing the task force on mathematics and science enrollments in 2006. She served on the advisory board of the Council for International Exchange of Scholars (CIES), which administers the Fulbright Scholar Program.

She graduated cum laude from St. John’s University in 1961, and earned her master’s and Ph.D. degrees in biology from New York University. A native of Staten Island, N.Y., she was married to Dr. Charles W. Sullivan, an electrical and computer software engineer.

Her career began in 1961 as a teaching fellow at NYU, where she later held pre-doctoral and post-doctoral fellowships from the National Institutes of Health. She spent 10 years (1970-1980) on the biology faculty at Wells College, where she chaired the Life Sciences Division and the Science and Human Values Project, and directed the Women in Science Program.

She spent eight years at Texas Woman’s University, starting as an associate professor of biology in 1979. She then went to Salem College in Winston-Salem, where she was Dean of the College from 1981-1987. She returned to Texas Womans University in 1987 to become vice president for academic affairs. She remained at TWU until 1994, serving as TWU’S interim president 1993-1994.

Her selection for the top job at UNCG was announced on Oct. 14, 1994, by then-UNC system President C.D. Spangler Jr., who said it was high time for UNCG to have a woman as chancellor – 103 years after the institution’s opening in 1892 as a normal school for the education of women.

In 2000, Sullivan went door to door in Greensboro to campaign for the $3.1 billion N.C. Higher Education Bond referendum. The bonds passed and allowed UNCG to build several new academic buildings, including a $47 million, state-of-the-art facility for science teaching and research that opened in 2003. In April 2008, it was named the Patricia A. Sullivan Science Building.

For more stories about Sullivan’s legacy, read the Spring 2008 UNCG Magazine.

<< Timeline of Chancellor Sullivan’s Tenure at UNCG >>